Could designer doughnuts edge out cutesy cupcakes?

Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press

Published 1:35 pm, Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Photo: Larry Crowe, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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This photo taken Jan. 3, 2010 shows baked chocolate doughnuts. While a bing cherry balsamic doughnut, found at one of the gourmet doughnut shops around the nation, may not be your thing you can get creative on your own and be part of the wave of designer doughnut offerings. These baked chocolate doughnuts let you avoid the mess of deep frying and allow for plenty of creativity in decorating. (AP Photo/Larry Crowe) less

This photo taken Jan. 3, 2010 shows baked chocolate doughnuts. While a bing cherry balsamic doughnut, found at one of the gourmet doughnut shops around the nation, may not be your thing you can get creative on ... more

Fresh off the nation's fascination with cupcakes, bakers across the country are experimenting with gourmet flavor combinations and unorthodox ingredients in doughnuts, everything from meats to Cocoa Puffs breakfast cereal.

"You're taking a relatively inexpensive item and you're turning it into a luxury item," says Anderson, whose seasonal offerings also have included butternut squash and white chocolate blueberry doughnuts.

"So maybe people can't afford the best house or the best car, but they can go out and buy a piece of indulgence at a price they can afford."

Paul Mullins, author of "Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut," calls them "designer doughnuts," and says the trend defies the stereotype of doughnut shops as smoke-filled hangouts of laborers lingering over burnt coffee and bad doughtnuts.

And fancy doughnuts are increasingly common. Designer doughnut shops, bakeries and related businesses have proved popular with young urbanites on both coasts, as well as large cities such as Chicago, Mullins says.

"The chefs, they're really skilled, they are really creative," he says. "These designer doughnuts by regular Krispy Kreme standards are pricey, but by haute cuisine standards, $5 or $6, that's not that much."

The doughnut-makers are playing with consumers' notions of creativity and curiosity, Mullins says. "What in the world does a chamomile doughnut taste like? I don't know if I'd want it on an every-week basis, but I'd give it a sh\ot."

Michelle Vazquez, owner of Mandarin Gourmet Donut Shoppe in Miami (home to the chamomile creation, as well as a guava and cheese variety), says her doughnuts are attractive to health-conscious customers who want something "a little bit higher-class than a regular doughnut."

Mark Isreal, owner of Doughnut Plant in New York City, sees doughnuts as palletes for creativity and experimentation. He created a square doughnut filled with homemade jelly. Other recent flavors have included peanut butter, roasted chestnuts, cranberries and coconut.

"The bakery is my artist's studio in a way, where I create," Isreal says. "You're going to have a flavor and a texture that is totally new for a doughnut and that's exciting."

Designer doughnuts aren't as popular as cupcakes, which spawned a craze of cafes and bakeries, but the groundwork is there, says Sarah Levy, a pastry chef who owns two dessert shops in Chicago and is author of "Sweetness: Delicious Baked Treats for Every Occasion."

"It's an item where you can put a unique twist to it to kind of freshen it and make it exciting again," she says. "It's kind of a cool blank slate that you can doctor up and make them festive with different ingredients."

At Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland, Ore., owner Kenneth "Cat Daddy" Pogson says the bakery puts a signature stamp on doughnuts by using sugar cereals such as Fruit Loops and bacon strips as ingredients. The shop's bacon maple bar doughnut came to be after a discussion about mixing savory and sweet flavors.

"I walked in with some bacon one day and boom, there it was," Pogson says. "Two strips of bacon."

Back in Chicago, Anderson makes doughnuts for customers like Ellen Pecciotto of Chicago, who bought butternut squash and frosted apple cider doughnuts.

"I love the different flavors," Pecciotto said after making her purchase at a recent local farmer's market. "Nobody does that."

Anderson says she will continue to experiment with her doughnut flavors.

"There's a lot of room for growth," she said. "I think things are just beginning."